Clousden Hill Free Communist And Co-operative Colony
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Clousden Hill Free Communist and Co-operative Colony was an
anarcho-communist Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains resp ...
commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...
from 1895 until 1898 in
Forest Hall Forest Hall is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in the United Kingdom. It is a north eastern suburb of Newcastle and lies six kilometres from the city centre. It borders Killingworth to the north, Holystone to the east and Benton to the ...
,
North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered ...
,
Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...
, England. The commune was part of the
back-to-the-land movement A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree of self-suffic ...
, operating a 12-acre farm under collective ownership and democratic control.


History

The commune was founded by Franz Kapper and William Key. The founders were in part inspired by the Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin who in correspondence with the colony expressed his general support, but also stressed his scepticism of small, rural, non-federated, experimental communities. In an 1897 article Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta expressed his support for the colony, but with similar reservations to Kropotkin. Malatesta also raised concern that were reportedly 27 men in the commune, most of whom were young, and only 4 women. The colony failed in part because of a lack of capital and internal disagreements and tensions. The nature of the internal tensions and disagreement are to some extent still faced by contemporary
intentional communities An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...
, such as issues of gender and housework, and the sharing of labour more generally.


Bibliography

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References

{{reflist Communes Anarchism in England 19th century in Newcastle upon Tyne Anarchist intentional communities Utopian communities